The bad joke: Alternative
by Alfiece
Summary: What would have happened if Adrien hadn't freaked out the last second and had let Marinette kiss him? After all the revelations, kissing and conversations, he doesn't know what to think anymore. Or maybe he thinks too much while the answer is just in front of him. But it wouldn't be fun if it was that easy, right? Alternative Statue Scene, might contain future spoilers.
1. The kiss

_Hello, darlings!_

As I mentioned in my previous story, I had two ideas for stories and I'm not quite sure not which one should I focus on more; the one which truly follows the events in the Puppeteer 2 with drama and all, or this one where some things happened differently (wink) and is going to be more of a rom-com? I honestly can't tell which would be more interesting and I realised that writing two stories about the same situation is not too creative and entertaining. It would be nice to hear some thoughts from you guys, what kind of fanfics this fandom need.

Aside from that, please enjoy the story. It may seem short, shorter than the other one but it's only because of what I've said before. Once I decide which to continue, I'll try to make chapters longer.

Sending love and kisses~

* * *

"Are you sure this plan of yours will work, Adrien?"

"Shh Plagg, I'm positive, now hide!"

…

It did _not _work.

At least not how he expected to.

It was meant to be an innocent joke, a prank you pull on your friends when you want to ease the tension created between each other after an argument, nothing more and nothing less. At least that was what he'd learnt from observing his friends' everyday interactions. And from movies, books and manga that he used to passionately watch and read. In most cases, those jokes did their job. But sometimes, they didn't exactly work out the way they were supposed to, or, in very rare occasions, they backfired. And in his case, he wasn't sure which one was that.

He was standing in the middle of the room, pretending to be one of the wax figures which were spread out all over the place. He had to admit that the years he'd spent on modelling and photoshoot sessions finally started to become useful. Without thinking, he took a not too complicated pose and waited. Waited for his _prey_. He could already see the moment when she noticed him, approached him to check whether it was him or the statue and when she'd start to get confused and begin to realise that it was actually him, he would startle her (but gently!) and maybe they'd even start chasing each other afterwards and everything would go back to normal. That was exactly how he saw that, simple as that.

Yet, not everything went along according to the plan. In fact, everything turned out really, _really_ wrong.

It started the moment when Marinette thought that he was just a statue. Then, she started to touch his face in a delicate manner and she got surprised on how realistic and well-made the wax figure was. And probably that was when he should have interrupted, however as much as he wanted to, he couldn't because not only the whole situation was getting out of hand so fast, what he heard next from her made him froze in shock. His brain slowly started to be overloaded with all the information he was receiving like the fact that she smelt him and commented on how nice his smell was or the fact that she pull out _a hair _from his head which made his right eye to twitch uncontrollably which she, fortunately, didn't see _or _when she started to say something about fate not being fair and that she wished she had been made of wax as well because that would make everything easier.

And then, came _that _moment which he completely, totally, _absolutely_ did not, and would never in his dreams predict.

His friend, his _really good _friend, Marinette, who, just few minutes ago, he feared that she didn't like him anymore and didn't want to have anything to do with him, which made him, Adrien, try to fix the situation and make her comfortable to talk to him again, put one arm around his shoulders and placed the other one on his cheek, got closer and with her eyes closed, her face and lips started to get dangerously _close _to his. At that point, his brain and basically his whole body stopped responding, even though he tried his best to stop it. He knew what was going to happen in barely few seconds but all he could do was stand still with wide eyes, listen to his loudly beating heart, which proved to be the only working part of his body right then and watch it coming.

And then he felt it. The kiss. His very first kiss. He felt a pair of very warm and very soft lips gently pressed against his. They weren't moving, they were just there and it felt _so nice_. No, not just nice, it felt great, amazing, blissful, wonderful and something he'd never experienced in his life. He started to melt into that kiss, wishing he could fully give himself in but he knew the moment Marinette would feel his lips moving she would immediately freak out, slap the hell out of him, possibly (definitely) call him a pervert or worse and swear to never speak to him again after realising that he was pretending to be the statue that whole time. Still, he couldn't win with temptation and his lids started to gradually fall and his frame began to relax and turn into goo.

If they'd been kissing a bit longer, Marinette would have discovered the truth. Fortunately for Adrien, something or somebody interrupted them. Unfortunately for them, because it appeared that that somebody was none other than Hawk Moth. Out of all places and considering all the akumas he'd fought with his lady, the villain decided to turn up now?! Just when he was his defenceless, normal self and pretending to be dead! This was really bad.

While Adrien mentally struggled at what he should have done, Hawk Moth, wasting no time, charged at still shocked Marinette. The butterfly kwami holder prepared his cane to attack, and when the young model finally decided that his _friend's _life was more important than the consequences of his bad joke (obviously), she surprised both of them when she somersaulted backwards, dodging the hit in the last second, and doing it with such a grace as if she'd been doing this her whole life. The girl looked at the super-villain and then quickly at the Adrien-looking figure, her face showing many emotions which were flowing through her right then and she swiftly turned around and started to run to where the stairs where. Hawk Moth followed her instantly and the moment he left the room, Adrien finally stopped posing and opened his jacket.

"Sooo, did it work?" asked the tiny, black cat-like creature with that voice and expression saying that he'd already known the answer.

"Not now, _Plagg_," grumbled his owner, knowing that the kwami would be poking fun at him and sneering at how his another great plan ended up the same way as his previous, _great _plans. He definitely would not let him live when they got home.

But there wasn't time for that now. They had to go and save Marinette before Hawk Moth got her first.

"Do you know where to go?" they were running the same direction, quickly approaching the stairs which he'd taken before with his friends and Veronique. He assumed that the raven-haired girl must have gone to the room where he was actually supposed to be with his arm still in wax to warn him about upcoming danger. It struck him that she would not meet him there and either start looking for him, letting her guard down or began to feel worried and maybe even scared, thus making herself an easy target for _him_. He wouldn't let that.

With growing determination, he called Plagg to transform (without answering him) and went for the stairs, skipping as many as he could to get there as fast as possible.


	2. The Papillon

_Bang!_

Marinette reached her destination and quickly closed the doors behind her, making a bit of noise. She cursed under her breath, although she knew she didn't have to be discreet about her whereabouts as the stairs led to the corridor with not too many places to hide.

Hawk Moth was going to find her soon anyway.

She turned around and leaned on the doors; she had to come up with something.

She came up with two ideas on the spot; they could either pretend to be statues to mislead the villain and when free, go look for their friends, leave the building together and then she would transform and come back or she would just hide Adrien now so that she could transform and go fight Papillon.

_But wait a second, where was Adrien?! _

The heroine was looking at the empty chair where the model had been sitting on just before she left. She walked away from the doors and started to look around, half-calling half-whispering his name but with no response.

Was he attacked by Hawk Moth? Or maybe there was somebody else? Or perhaps he managed to escape and was somewhere in the building?

With a certainty that she was alone in the room, she called Tikki to transform. At the same moment, the doors opened, revealing the man who was chasing her just few minutes ago. Now as Ladybug, she took her yoyo and both began fighting.

During that, she started to notice that there was something off about the villain; his movements were stiff and sometimes uncoordinated and not to mention that he was oddly silent in comparison to that one time she and her partner had had a pleasure to meet him.

Their short fight ended when she'd distracted herself for a moment, which Hawk Moth took as a chance and sent her flying to the wall and then to the ground. The impact made Ladybug dazed and temporarily unable to fight or even stand. She could only see a blurred figure getting closer to her and then… it disappeared?

She tried to shake off the dizziness, remembering that she was still in the battle, and squinted her eyes to get a better picture of what was happening. And then she sneezed.

"Bless you, m'lady," she heard a very familiar voice coming from where the super-villain was standing just a second ago. She finally started to see and what she saw was her partner in crime, a black leather-clad, human-cat superhero who was sheepishly smiling at her. However, there was no sight of the man who she was fighting with before.

She looked down on the ground and she saw ash spilled all over the floor in front of her and some of it on Chat's boots. The realization hit her and she instantly began to look horrified, _mortified_ by it; did he just– ?

"Everything alright, _bugaboo_? You are getting really pale and I don't know what to–"

"DID YOU JUST _CATACLYSM HIM?!_" she screamed in disbelief and horror. It was loud enough for the cat-man to cover his inhumanly sensitive ears and take few steps back. He wasn't prepared for that and now his head hurt as well.

"It's ok, he was just a wax statue. Why, you didn't think I would use my power on a real one?" he asked confidently but the look on her face was saying something else, "My Lady! Of course I wouldn't _cataclysm _a real person, how could you even think that!" he cried out, looking dramatically offended by her assumptions.

He tried his best to appear mad at his partner but his cat ears gave him away; they fell down and you could see that he was more of a sad than angry.

And kind of cute? Like a little, poor kitten which had just gotten wet on a rainy day.

How could she thought, even for a moment, that he could do anything bad to any living creature on this planet? She needed to start thinking a bit more before speaking, she didn't want to upset him for no reason again. And she really wanted to hug him now. _Wait, what?_

"I'm sorry Kitty, I think that I hit the wall pretty hard and I may not be thinking the right way. I didn't mean to say that; I know you wouldn't kill even _a fly_." She sincerely apologised, scratching her head and checking for any injuries at the same time. When she looked up, she saw a small smile forming on the other hero's lips. However, it wasn't the soft, warm, "I forgive you" kind of smile but more like a satisfied, devilish, "I got her fooled" one.

Had he just tricked her now?

Chat Noir approached her and, standing above his lady, he extended his right arm to help her up. "I wouldn't even dream to do such a thing, especially to a particular _bug,_" he winked at her and his smile grew bigger, he was basically grinning now. The only response to that was her rolling the eyes and accepting his hand. She decided to go back to what he had said before he began his trickery.

"How did you know that he was fake?" asked Ladybug, trying slowly to stand up. In response, the masked boy proudly pointed to his nose with his other hand. Right, his supernatural senses, how could she forget. Sometimes she wished she had been granted some of those too, they could have come handy in many previous fights or even now. But at least she had her knight in black to save the day.

"So it appears that today's akuma can bring statues to life. This might be problematic, considering that we are in the museum full of wax figures. We have to find the possessed person now before they revive everyone, erhm, I mean everything?" Ladybug said, taking one of her well-known fighting positions.

"We have to find Marinette."

"What?!" she unexpectedly yelled with a bit higher than normal voice. It made the other teenager close his eyes and grimace due to another ringing in his ears. He was positive that if that happened again, his ears would either start to bleed or simply fall off.

"We have to go look for and save Marinette first," Chat repeated, a little worried about the fact that his partner's previous impact with the wall could actually affect her hearing, especially since he was becoming deaf himself.

He was also worried about his other friend; he was pretty confident that she'd be here, where else would she possibly go? And Hawk Moth couldn't get her before him because Ladybug stopped the villain. That would mean that…

"M-Marinette? You mean th-this girl with p-pigtails, uhh, the fashion designer? She was here, she ran o-onto me and I told her where to hide. You don't have to worry about her, she – she is safe." The heroine explained, quite awkwardly, praying that she didn't say anything which could give her secret away. She was waiting for the boy's reaction, fearing more questions or some sort of reveal but his only response was an understanding "oh".

It was so nice to know that Chat cared about her civilian self though.

Her civilian self.

_Civilian_?

Adrien!

"Where is Adrien?! Ha-Have you seen him?!"

Now it was his turn to panic, trying to think of a quick answer.

"A-Adrien? That blond model g-guy from perfumes? Y-Yeah, I told him to, ehm, find a place to stay and wait for us to finish the job. He's fine, no worries," he tried to sound casual, nonchalantly even but that was harder than he'd thought in his alerted state. He relaxed the moment his lady gave a deep sigh.

"Alright, so now we can focus on the job we have to do. Are you ready, _kitty_?"

"Always, m'lady."

And together, they went to save Paris again.

* * *

_Good morning, darlings~!_

Here's the second chapter you've been waiting for. Originally, that scene was meant to be only briefly described but when I was writing, I started adding this and that and it turned out to be a whole chapter. I'm not fully satisfied with this one as I wanted to make it funnier in some parts but well, I can always fix it in another chapter, am I right? Short note from me but frankly it's almost 40 degrees Celsius outside, maybe more in and I'm melting and my brain is out of order and _I just can't take the heat anymore_. I'll see you next time, have a lovely week my dears, A-Alife xx


	3. The decision

The akuma wasn't one of the worst and it wasn't new either; it turned out that it was Manon who had been transformed to Puppeteer. Fighting her the second time was easier as they already knew her powers and where the akuma was. In fact, that could have been their easiest and quickest mission in a long time if it hadn't been for him and his lack of concentration.

He tried to push aside his thoughts about that _certain_ event, at least for the sake of their current situation, and he even managed to do that until he said her name. He thanked that his mask covered half of his face, especially his cheeks, and that his partner was fully focused on the fight, otherwise he would have had to explain his unnaturally red face to Ladybug just every other minute.

Overall, he wasn't much of a help. The success of today's job belonged only to the heroine. Normally, he would feel bad about that but not today where he'd been having a lot going on his mind and, to his misfortune, another thing was rapidly coming his way. He had to face her _very _soon.

Hiding in one of the rooms, he dropped his transformation and started looking for cheese for his always hungry kwami. Even if he hadn't done too much as Chat Noir, he began to feel exhausted, even more with his powers now taken and he just wished for this day to be finally over. Yet, he still had some things to do or rather to explain.

He heavily sighed with some sort of resignation. How was he supposed to tell her that? And where? Should he tell her privately or –?

He mentally smacked himself on the head.

_Idiot_! Of course it had to be a private conversation! But was she gonna yell at him? Hate him? Without a doubt both. Or kill him? Would she kill him? Yeah, she would definitely kill him.

How was she going to kill him?

The more he was thinking about it, the less he wanted to confess.

But she deserved to know, right?

"What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over. Or in this case the ear, what the ear doesn't hear. Something like that." Plagg recited between his munches which must have clearly taken Adrien aback because the black kwami added, "What?"

"Err, nothing, it's just… you surprised me a bit I guess." And made him think again.

"Listen kid, I've been hanging around in this world for thousands of years and I'll tell you two of the many things I have learnt during that time," the little cat-like god made a pause, using it to fully swallow the Camembert he had been relishing on, and then carried on, "First, humans are complex, difficult to understand and like to complicate things even more than they already are," he stated, making Adrien roll his eyes, "on the other hand, cheese is –"

"Plagg! This is serious! You are not helping at all!"

"Alright, alright, I just wanted to ease the tension, relax kiddo. Erhm, what was I saying? Oh, yes, what I was trying to say is that sometimes it's better to keep some things to yourself if they mean to cause only trouble, tears and broken bonds. You did something stupid, again, even if I had warned you, and you won't change that. Now tell me, what possibly good would come out of it if you told her the truth? She is going to only be embarrassed and will not talk to you, or even look at you ever again. And then you will be sad and heartbroken over your friendship and _I _will have to listen to everything, every day, till the end of our lives."

"But I'll feel guilty for not telling her for the rest of my life!"

"Meh, you'll forget about it, eventually," Plagg said, the last word almost a whisper. The truth was that deep down he knew that it wouldn't happen; his owner was too innocent for that, his soul too pure to follow kwami's advice.

"I – I can't… I – " the teenager started to panic, his head full of conflicted thoughts running every second. It was as if he had all the possible pros and cons for confessing and not confessing to Marinette, fighting with each other, trying to overtake his mind. He was slowly losing it.

"_Adrien?"_

He stopped his overthinking when he heard his name being called, loud. But it wasn't Plagg who was calling him. The voice came from a distance, just behind the doors he was leaning on and it belonged to a girl. Not some girl, it was Marinette's and he was getting nervous again.

He wondered how long his heart was going to last as he felt like he was already having a heart attack.

"Adrien, are you there?"

The blonde model turned to the kwami, "C'mon Plagg, you gotta hide."

"But what about you, did you come up with something?"

"No, I'm still thinking but my friends are going to find me soon so you better hurry up!"

When Plagg hid behind the jacket, Adrien took a deep breath and opened the doors. He was immediately greeted by blue like the ocean eyes, which were now wide open (probably just like his), and which belonged to the girl who was calling him just moments ago.

Her right hand was raised, indicating that she had been about to knock on his doors. She had a kind of a shocked expression on her face which made the boy wonder if that was caused by him suddenly leaving the room or that… she had overheard his conversation from earlier. The second thought made him anxious.

"Marinette, uhm, hi. Were you looking for me?" he tried to sound casual.

The said girl blinked a few times and then blushed. She quickly fixed her posture and smiled widely, "H-hi Adrien, yes, me was you looking, I-I mean I was looking at you, no, _for _you!" she tripped over her words which he always found quite amusing, even though he still hadn't figured out the reason of her stuttering.

"Alya and Nino sent me to, to find you, that's it, they are waiting downstairs." She added. And then she did something he had never seen her do before; she _bit _her lips and his eyes instantly followed.

_Those plump, soft lips he kissed not even an hour ago._

The fresh memory set his face aflame, his whole body began burning from overflowing new emotions.

"A-Are they?!" he almost shouted, unintentionally, "Let's better not keep them waiting any longer then!" and he started to go to the stairs, praying that Marinette didn't see or suspect anything.

* * *

They quickly got to their friends not saying much on their way. Veronique was waiting for them as well, and when the four of them were together, she showed them the statue of Adrien which was surprisingly all ready, despite the akuma attack.

After that, they were shown a few more figures and then were walked to the car which was already there with his driver. They thanked and said goodbyes to Veronique and took their usual seats in the car.

Once inside, they were recalling today's events; mainly Nino and Alya. Adrien, on the other hand, was back to battling with his thoughts, whereas Marinette was staring out of the window, clearly lost in her own world too.

Fifteen minutes later, he was waving goodbye to Alya, who finished hugging Marinette, and the brunette disappeared behind the door to her house while the ravenette started walking back to the car where Adrien was holding the door open for her. When she took a seat on the other side of the vehicle, the model followed behind, taking her previous spot.

And then there was an awkward silence.

They were looking at everything but each other, both not sure what to say.

Eventually, Adrien was the one who decided to change that killing atmosphere.

"So, how did you like it?"

He didn't know why but for a moment Marinette seemed to be taken by (a big) surprise by his question and even her cheeks flushed a little bit before she recovered. He then realised that she must have _misunderstood _what he had said, in a certain way that made him flush now as well.

"Erhm, it was a fantastic and new experience for me and I'd definitely love to do it again!" Her choice of words made it harder for him to focus on what they were actually talking about.

"Y-yeah, m-me too." He stuttered which was very rare for the teenage boy to do.

Another silence came between them. He looked at his friend from the corner of his eye and he almost screamed out of frustration, seeing how she was all happy and smiling without knowing what a bad thing he had done to her.

He had it enough, he had to tell her.

"Marinette, I have to tell you – "

"I'm so lucky to have you guys as my friends."

_Huh?_

"Huh?" Was his only response right now.

"I know, it's so random but after today's day, it came to me that I'm being surrounded by such great, kind, honest, supporting people that it's a miracle. I'm," her eyes got dangerously teary, "I'm beyond grateful that I finally found friends, wait, _best _friends like you. Oh, I got so emotional now, I'm sorry." And she smiled with that adorable smile of hers.

Adrien, however, felt as if he was punched very hard in the stomach by the strongest akuma ever created. He felt guilt fully taking over his body, slowly destroying him, piece by piece.

At that point, he knew he was screwed.

"We are here." A grunt came from the driver's seat.

The car wasn't moving anymore. They reached their destination, too quick, much to the model's dismay.

_He hadn't told her yet_! And now, she was leaving the car. Dammit.

He quickly followed her steps and they both stopped in front of the bakery.

"Thank you for today, Adrien. It was really fun."

"I'm glad you liked it." _C'mon, you need to say it!_

He could feel his blood flowing faster, the only thing he could hear was his own heartbeat. He pursed his lips and closed his eyes, trying to make the right decision. It was now or never.

"Adrien? Are you alrig – ?"

"Mari, I _must _confess. About earlier…" He opened his eyes again and looked into hers; they were so big, so blue and _so beautiful_. He was weak. "It was really sweet what you said about us, about me, Alya and Nino. You are a really great friend yourself and I wanted you to know it." And he heartfeltly, yet painfully smiled.

He was terrible.

* * *

_'Sup my lovely readers,_

_I'm sorry you had to wait only a month and a half for another update, I hope you ain't mad cause we are back on track. With the newest episodes of Ladybug, I got a dose of motivation to write. Moreover, the "Ladybug" episode... damn, so many ideas came from that one and I really like the (spoiler alert!) theory about Adrien being, you know, a perfect creation of somebody. That's so dark, too dark to actually happen but it makes so much sense! Yet, at the same time poor Adrien, he really can't have a break from all of that drama, it's really heartbreaking. _

_And what do you think about the latest revelations? There are still a few episodes left, what else are we gonna learn from them? I'm really curious about the Chat Blanc one right now. And the final ones, obv. _

_Anyway, let me know how was this chapter, what should I change or improve. _

_See you next time, _

_With love, Al xxx_


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